9.30.2009

Walk him and pitch to the Rhino.....

Director Harold Ramis's Year One is one astonishing movie.

I wouldn't have thought it possible to put Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, and Hank Azaria in a movie and not generate a single moment of genuine humour. Not one. It's incomprehensible. If you were to train a camera randomly on any one of these guys for 5 minutes, I guarantee you'd get at least a couple of impromptu chuckles, even if they were asleep. It simply boggles the mind how anyone could write a script that entirely neuters the natural comedic talents of some pretty funny dudes, and yet here it is – Year One.

I watched the whole thing, something I rarely do if by about the ½ hour point I haven't found at least a tiny nugget of worth to hold on to. It became a challenge of sorts, I began egging on Ramis to do the impossible – make none of these guys do or say anything that made me laugh for an hour and a half.

He won.

Year One is not quite as funny as Schindler's List but significantly more humourous than Stalingrad, so that's something. I would place it somewhere between Grave of the Fireflies and Lilja 4-Ever in terms of laughs and Patch Adams and The Wayan Bros' Little Man on a quality scale.

Year one is the worst film I've seen this year, a bland, shit-eating snoozefest of punchlines sans the all-important setup part. It's PG-13 rating is confusing given the R-rated material for 7 year-old content. I guess they split the difference.

Judd Apetow co-produced.

Quelle surprise.

Sporgey.

2 comments:

  1. as you say, quelle surprise. this looks absolutely horrid. thank you for diving on the grenade and saving us all an hour and a half of our lives that you'll never get back.

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